Excess cultural baggage

In contemporary Russia, the traditional socio-political culture has left a legacy of conviction that the political leadership, headed by the president, is the only body empowered to act, capable of making decisions and entitled to make them, while society is subordinate to the government and acts as a petitioner appealing to the goodwill of the decision-maker. The conviction that this model is natural for Russia is upheld by an extensive network of actors, both those who deliberately foster the state-centric vision (representatives of the state administration, PR advisors, journalists) and average citizens, teachers, parents, who unknowingly reproduce the view that certain things are a “natural course of events” for Russia. As a result, society’s dissatisfaction with the condition of the state is frequently accompanied by a feeling of powerlessness and disbelief in any change of the present system.